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Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries Officious, but to thee, earth's habitant. And for the heaven's wide circuit, let it speak The Maker's high magnificence, who built So spacious, and his line stretched out so far, That man may know he dwells not in his own, An edifice too large for him to fill, Lodged in a small partition, and the rest Ordained for uses to his Lord best known. The swiftness of those circles attribute, Though numberless, to his omnipotence, That to corporeal substances could add Speed almost spiritual. Me thou think'st not slow, Who since the morning hour set out from Heaven, Where God resides, and ere mid-day arrived In Eden-distance inexpressible By numbers that have name. But this I urge, Admitting motion in the heavens, to shew Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved; Not that I so affirm, though so it seem To thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth. God, to remove his ways from human sense, Placed heaven from earth so far, that earthly sight, If it presume, might err in things too high, And no advantage gain. What if the sun Be centre to the world, and other stars, By his attractive virtue and their own Incited, dance about him various rounds! Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid, Progressive, retrograde, or standing still, In six thou seest; and what if seventh to these, The planet Earth, so steadfast though she seem, Insensibly three different motions move?

Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,

Moved contrary with thwart obliquities;

Or save the sun his labour, and that swift

And from about her shot darts of desire Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight. And Raphael now, to Adam's doubt proposed, Benevolent and facile thus replied:

To ask or search, I blame thee not; for heaven Is as the book of God before thee set, Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years. This to attain, whether heaven move or earth, Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest From man or angel the great Architect Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge His secrets, to be scanned by them who ought Rather admire; or, if they list to try Conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens Hath left to their disputes—perhaps to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter, when they come to model heaven And calculate the stars, how they will wield The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive, To save appearances, how gird the sphere With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicyle, orb in orb. Already by thy reasoning this I guess, Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest That bodies bright and greater should not serve The less, nor bright; nor heaven such journeys run, Each sitting still, when she alone receives The benefit. Consider first, that great Or bright infers not excellence: the earth, Though, in comparison of heaven, so small, Nor glistering, may of solid good contain More plenty than the sun that barren shines; Whose virtue on itself works no effect, But in the fruitful earth, there first received, His beams, inactive else, their vigour find.

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